Five officers, including SHO, suspended for raid at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Gohar Ali Khan's house
Jan 14, 2024
Islamabad [Pakistan], January 14 : The Islamabad Police on Sunday said that five officers have been suspended following a preliminary inquiry into Friday's raid at the residence of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Dawn reported.
Amongst those five officers, the Margalla station house officer (SHO) was also suspended.
The raid at Barrister Gohar's house, located in F7, was conducted on Saturday while he was appearing before the Supreme Court for the hearing on the petition against the restoration of the party's electoral symbol.
As soon as he came to know about the raid, he told the Supreme Court and left for his home, as reported by Dawn.
Later, he came back to the apex court and informed the bench that his son and nephew had been tortured by the police.
Following this, the court took notice of the raid and summoned the chief of the capital police.
However, initially, the police denied about conducting any raid at Gohar's incident, but a video went viral on social media after which the police issued "contradictory statements" about the raid.
According to Dawn, the police officers, on condition of anonymity, said that the raid was conducted on the directives of the senior officers.
A police team reached the house of the PTI leader in four vehicles for the raid, they added. Further, the team entered the house and left after confiscating a computer and some documents, they said.
Separately, the police claimed that the house was raided and was on a tip-off regarding the presence of proclaimed offenders in his house.
However, the contingent returned after learning that the house belonged to the PTI leader. The police added that Gohar's house was raided due to confusion about the address, as reported by Dawn.
The Islamabad police shared on social media platform X that a fact-finding inquiry was conducted regarding the raid at Barrister Gohar's residence.
It added that the police had reached F-7/2 at 2 pm yesterday to apprehend a "proclaimed offender on the tip of an informer".
According to the statement, when the police party found out that the said house was the residence of Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, the raiding police party came back immediately.
It further stated that the PTI leader complained to the apex court about the raid.
"The Honourable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan summoned the Islamabad Capital City Police Officer (ICCPO) and ordered an investigation into the matter," the police noted, adding that the Supreme Court had directed the ICCPO to personally hear Gohar's grievances.
Moreover, they further said that the Islamabad police chief Akbar Nasir Khan assured Gohar that the matter would be investigated and departmental action would be taken if any police officer was found guilty.
According to the statement, Nasir appointed the district officer as an inquiry officer with the directions to hold a fact-finding inquiry into the matter and submit a detailed report within three days, reported Dawn.
"After preliminary inquiry 5 officers, including SHO Margalla, have been suspended until further orders," the police said, adding that an inquiry was being conducted and strict action would be taken against the officials who violated the law.